World of Warcraft Blamed for 13-Year Old's Death

Blizzard’s hugely popular MMORPG, "World of Warcraft," has been blamed for the death of a 13-year old Chinese boy who jumped from the roof of a building in an apparent re-enactment of the game. WoW base-jumping is an in-game sport created by some WoW players (not a part of the game itself) where characters jump from tall buildings, canyons and bridges, ultimately to their character’s death. Apparently the 13-year old was re-enacting this in-game sport. Zhang Chunliang, whose views on gaming addiction are widely known, has approached the parents of the boy and added them to a list of over 60 parents whose children are addicted to the MMORPG. The parents are reported to be filing a lawsuit against Blizzard over their children’s addiction and in one case, the death of their child. In legal standings the parents could have a hard time defending their case as the in-game sport of base-jumping usually ends up with the character dying, therefore portraying the stupidity of the act. Then again, we have seen some interesting legal cases against game developers in the last few years and with the "World of Warcraft" user base exceeding 4.5 million worldwide, it would be a case that creates global interest, alongside Rockstar’s "Hot Coffee" mod meltdown.